The Magical Mouse Box

Feb.3,2012

The Magical Mouse Box is a simple solution we have been using for years to help control the mice population around our chicken coop and compost bins. Build a few of these and your mice problem will magically disappear!

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We live in the suburbs of a city. The town we live in used to be pretty rural. In fact when I was growing up our town was still the country. Over the last 30 years the city has invaded pretty heavily, but our city council has done a fairly good job of defending the country feel of our town. Most developments in our town require at least half acre lots and there really is a lot of farmland (or at least pasture land) around. On top of that our city hasn’t allowed much development surrounding the Jordan river. We live less than a half mile from the river so there is a lot of open land surrounding our neighborhood. That means that we still get to enjoy some of the natural wildlife. We have lots of migratory birds, birds of prey and even a small herd of deer. But along with the good come the bad including raccoons, skunks and MICE!

Cats Always Help

Our first line of defense against mice in our house is Kiwi. Yes you read that right Kiwi. No we don’t spread tropical fruit all over our house, that’s the name of our cat! Getting a house cat was the best thing we ever did to deal with mice coming in the house. Since Kiwi joined the family we have only seen one mouse in the house and it was quickly dispatched by our feline friend!

Liz over at suburban tomato and I had a discussion the other day about dealing with mouse problems in the garden. I told her about the magical mouse box and promised to post a few pictures. What makes our mouse boxes magical? Mice go in the box in droves but they never come out!

How the magical mouse box works

Mice love dark places with small entries. They can’t resist checking out the dark confines of the magical mouse box. All we have to do is keep the inside of the box well stocked with mouse traps and the rest takes care of itself. The main advantage of the magical mouse box is we can place it anywhere in the yard and we don’t have to worry about the chickens or the cat accidentally getting caught in a trap. We are not much for chemicals in our family, so the commercially available poisons make me nervous. We are afraid to put out any poisons for fear that the chickens will eat them and die or even worse poison us through the eggs.

Simple to Build

The magical mouse box is very simple; the bottom and top are made from 12’ x 12’ plywood or OSB. The sides are 2×4’s; two are 12 inches long the other two are 8 inches. Just off-set the short sides and you will have a 2 inch hole on each side. Attach the sides to the bottom piece of plywood with some screws and use a simple hinge to attach the top.

I put 4 mouse traps inside the box, two right by the entry holes. No need to bait the traps they will crawl over them to get in.

Location is important

I put the magical mouse box anywhere we have a mouse problem. Chicken coops are mouse magnets and so are compost bins. We have two boxes one stays in the area around the coop and compost bin. The other gets moved around the yard as needed. They work just as advertised, catching tons of mice. Since we first put them out in the early fall we have caught 20 plus mice (most by the chicken coop). The other day we noticed a mouse in the garage so I brought one box in and placed it close to where we had seen the mouse. The next morning he was history!

I think I first read about this idea in one of Elliot Coleman’s winter gardening books. My 13 year old son built both of ours out of scrap we had laying around. We maybe spent two dollars each on the materials and that includes the hinges. It is a very simple and inexpensive solution to your mouse problems.

This is brilliant! I like you have a house cat, she spends the majority of her time in the house and only really goes out for an hour once a day (if that), although I’ve never seen her catch anything, I’ve also never seen a mouse in the house. I however have seen lots in the shed and garden. We also live on a half acre lot, with pasture land across the street so field mice are the norm here.
I’m always leery about using poison, as I’m convinced that one of my pets will eat the rodent and get the poison. So this is perfect, best part, I think I have all the supplies I need to build them. I’m thinking I’ll make 3, one for the shed, and one for my mother and another for my sister (both of whom have mice problems). Thank you so much for sharing.

Of course you reused the box. The ones we have are 7 years old now and just going strong. That’s why they have a lid, so you can easily get the used traps out and reset others. I fact you can reuse the traps too if you are okay getting rid of the mice.

Not necessarily for catching mice, however we had to be creative in catch some raccoons without catch all the neighbors cats. We began baiting our traps with marshmallows. I’m assuming it catches their attention due to resemblance of an egg, but 28 coons in 29 can attest to its power.

What kind of traps are you baiting for raccoons? I can see why marshmallows would be tempting, with the resemblance to eggs, but what are you using for traps? Raccoons are huge! I’ve yet to see one smaller than the average housecat.

We use a standard raccoon trap that we purchased from the feed store. It has a trap door on one side, with a pressure plate on the other. When then go across the plate, it triggers the door closed and they are trapped.

I have a trap I made from scrap plywood and a few odds and ends. Plywood “tube” about 8″ square and 16″ long … 1/4″ screen on one end sliding trap door on the other. Used all kids of bait … including none. Rats are curious and will go into the trap with no bait. Caught 25 rats last year.

Totally depends on the time of year. In the fall when the mice are thinking about moving “indoors” I get a lot. I keep one in my garden during the summer and get several during the year. We don’t have chickens right now, but when we did, we kept one in the coop and caught them daily, until the population dropped!!